Everyone Needs A Savior

“Everyone Needs a Savior?”

John 10:11-18

Who can we trust?

I mean who can we really, really trust?

We’ve got politicians who are willing to say and, in some cases, do just about anything to get our vote.

And how about corrupt preachers and evangelists who are out to steal the money of their trusting parishioners?

Our world is filled with people searching desperately for someone they can trust.

People looking for a Savior…

…someone who will love them unconditionally…

…someone who will never leave them, never forsake them.

Some folks look for a savior in our political, social, and economic systems that promise help and care.

Capitalism, though, creates consumers and a push for profit, many times at any cost.

It creates cycles of perceived need and a sense of lack.

In other words, it’s out for itself, without a care for the consumer.

I’m not bucking capitalism, but it makes a horrible savior.

And how about online influencers?

They aren’t paid to make a positive difference in a person’s life; they are funded by the amount of traffic they generate.

Even some our closest human relationships can be suspect.

This past week I was counseling someone who’s 70 year-old husband has been cheating on her for the past few months after 33 years of marriage.

She never, in her wildest dreams, thought this could or would happen.

In a world where we all need someone trustworthy in our lives, where do we look?

Is there any hope of finding someone?

Jesus says, in our Gospel Lesson for this morning that He is the Good Shepherd and the others are “hired hands” as He calls them, who will abandon us and leave us for the wolves at the first sign of trouble.

In verse 13 Jesus says that a hired hand “cares nothing for the sheep.”

In a world where corporations lay off workers for profits, with no loyalty to those who have given so much for the company it becomes a little more clear that there are a lot of hired hands out there or leaders who could care less for those who follow them or are in their care.

No wonder there is so much depression and anxiety in our world.

People are living without love, without commitment, without someone or something they can count on or trust.

What an empty existence; what a lonely life that is.

In verse 10 right before our reading for this morning, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Another way of translating this is “I have come that they may have life, and to have it abundantly.”

I want to ask you, what does abundance mean for you?

And I’m not talking about abundance in terms of quantity because abundance is a quality of life.

It’s a way of being.

I’d imagine we can all tell stories about times in our lives when there was something we wanted and we worked really hard for it or we waited a long time and we finally got that thing we wanted and once we had it, it didn’t do wht we thought it would.

It didn’t fill us up.

It didn’t satisfy.

We got what we wanted but we had no abundance.

One thing that comes to mind is Christmas as a kid.

My sisters and I used to go through the Sears and JCPenney Cateloges, the toy sections that is and pick out what we wanted for Christmas.

How many of you remember doing that?

For you folks born after a certain time, you have no idea what I am talking about.

So, perhaps think of looking at Amazon or something like that.

And we see a bunch of things we want.

Things that look like they would make our lives better.

Things that we are sure, in the case of a child, that we will play with over and over and over again.

Then the BIG DAY comes.

It’s Christmas morning.

We open our presents and we have gotten just what we asked for and dreamed about.

We might play with it for a few minutes and then return to that same beat up old GI Joe or Match Box Car or Barbie or whatever that we’ve been playing with for years.

The Christmas abundance is never touched again.

And, in many ways, Santa has wasted a lot of money, hasn’t he or she and our lives are the same as they were before.

The abundant life Jesus offers is the quality of life that connects us to God, and thus to what is good, true, and beautiful in this world.

It connects us to the Good Shepherd—the One Who loves us unconditionally and has only our best interests in mind.